"Looking at the numbers of the countries near us, one thinks that we will have problems with the coronavirus not in October-November, as had been assumed, but already at the end of August". So Professor Andrea Crisanti, full professor of microbiology at the University of Padua, interviewed by The messenger. Too many cases, says the expert, just a two-hour flight from our country. The professor then launches a guess: "In Italy we have many fewer cases than other European countries, perhaps we are not swabbing the right people. But I don't necessarily want to be pessimistic, maybe we are better, more effective in isolating outbreaks. In any case, it would be useful to know the reasons for the difference in our data with those of other countries. Having said that even our 275 cases today are not few ”.
Then on the forecasts of a second wave in autumn he says: "I don't know if we can call it the second wave, but it seems clear to me that we will have a very busy end of the summer. Maybe even the end of August ". Crisanti's suggestion is to implement the system for tracing the path of those entering Italy followed by swabs: "To carry out this meticulous screening it is necessary to make an unprecedented investment in information technology and machinery to make swabs, it is necessary to invest in any technology that makes it possible to identify who arrives with the virus ".
The flow of potentially infected people entering Italy follows different directions, from Eastern and North-Eastern Europe. From Romania, Pakistan and Afghanistan, we are talking about people who return to Italy to work as a caregiver or who return from holidays spent in their countries of origin. To stem and contain the danger, it is no coincidence that the governor of Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Fredriga, asked for the deployment of the Army at the borders. The Lazio Region has launched another alarm for citizens residing and working in Rome, who return from holidays spent in their country of origin and who arrive by bus at Tiburtina station or by plane in Ciampino. Another element of concern is the continuous arrival of migrants on our coasts then found wandering in Italian cities because they fled from the reception centers even if subjected to a period of quarantine.
Speaking in this regard yesterday was Francesco Vaia, director of Spallanzani in Rome: "There is no other solution, we must intervene in ports, airports and railway stations and even buses to intercept positive or symptomatic. For this reason, tampons must be made ".
In fact, a new rapid swab is being studied at Spallanzani, which would make it possible to carry out preventive mass screening in "real time". Perhaps next Wednesday the good news on the studies of the Roman hospital which, in a note, states: there are two types of rapid sieving swabs, if everything goes as you think, machines will be acquired which, with the help of the Uscar (special teams of anti Covid doctors) will be able to carry out the tests on all those who disembark in 20 minutes at airports or arrive at our stations.
It is hoped that all available measures will be put in place or think, perhaps with ESM funding, of huge investments to counter this new war which, as seen in just two months, has upset global economic balances considered to be stainless. On financing, however, in Italy there is still a lot of confusion between ideological speculations and the general incompetence of a political class (majority and opposition) that is thinking only of a very close time horizon and not of perspective.